Select your current stage to tailor your purchase timeline and loan options.
Direct answers to common questions about buying a home and obtaining mortgage pre-approval in California.
The process starts with estimating your comfortable budget and completing an interactive pre-approval intake before submitting purchase offers.
Our purchase intake collects estimated purchase price, target down payment, and property location to help match you with suitable conventional, FHA, or VA financing.
A pre-qualification is an initial estimate based on self-reported figures, whereas a pre-approval involves formal verification of credit, income, and asset documentation.
In competitive California housing markets, home sellers and listing agents strongly prefer pre-approval letters before reviewing purchase offers.
A 20% down payment is not mandatory. Qualified California buyers can purchase with as little as 3% down for conventional loans, 3.5% for FHA loans, and 0% down for eligible VA military borrowers.
Borrowers putting down less than 20% typically pay private mortgage insurance (PMI) on conventional loans or mortgage insurance premiums (MIP) on FHA loans.
Standard residential mortgage approvals typically take between 21 and 30 days from complete application submission to funding.
Timelines depend on property appraisal scheduling, title search verification, and how promptly documentation is submitted by the borrower.